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I can think of two reasons for Mayor Rob Ford not to attend the Pride parade. (His reasons are his, these are mine.)

I don’t think any public official should march in the parade until these two issues are resolved.

Are the streets of the city an appropriate place for public nudity and for throwing condoms to kids in the crowd? Portions of the parade look like Hustler magazine on feet, making it more suitable for an indoor venue.

Yes, I know, that is only a “small portion” of the parade, but it is the part that gets all the coverage, so Pride has to wear it, so to speak. What message am I supposed to be receiving? That gays are mainstream and just like the rest of us?

I think most gay people are, but the parade isn’t.

Does it matter that Pride — and tacitly at least, the city — are condoning what is in every other case except the naked bicycle event, an illegal activity on the street? (And what is the point of the naked bike ride, to prove a lot of people are better presented in pants?)

NOW Magazine has already shown us, by using Photoshop, what the mayor might look like naked. I vote he stay at the cottage.

Secondly, Pride has yet to suitably apologize for lying to the city last year. They distanced themselves from a Jew-hating group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, but once funding came through on that basis, they realigned with QuAIA. They lied and scammed us all.

Notice that neither of my comments have anything to do with acceptance of homosexuality. This is about public events and honesty.

Pride fails on both counts.

Barbara Kay wrote in the National Post, “Pride has no more legal and political ambitions to fulfil. The revolution is over. Pride is no longer about ‘support’ for gays. Now it’s all about having gay-themed fun. They don’t need politicians for that.”

So why is Ford being bullied by Pride and the left? I thought the whole point of Pride was tolerance. What’s with the roll call?

Now let’s address an astounding statement in last Sunday’s Warren Kinsella column in The Sun.

Kinsella wrote, “No one knows for sure, but experts seem to peg Canada’s gay and lesbian population as high as 15%. If true, that’s a lot of voters.”

Really, Warren? Which experts would those be? Statistics Canada reported in 2004, “About 1.3% of men considered themselves homosexual, about twice the proportion of 0.7% among women. However, 0.9% of women reported being bisexual, slightly higher than the proportion of 0.6% among men.” Perhaps it has gone up since 2004.

It shouldn’t matter what the percentage is, but Kinsella seemed to be making the illiberal point that Ford should make his decisions based solely on politics.

StatsCan also reports that close to 80% of Canadians are Christian. Would Kinsella like to see Ford trot out that stat?

And since we are talking politics here, what percentage of the people screaming at Ford for not marching does Kinsella think might be considering voting for Ford in the next election, regardless of where he is on parade day?